One on One Interview with TutorMing:

DigMandarin (DM): Who is TutorMing? Can you introduce TutorMing to us?

Eric: TutorMing is a live online service for learning Mandarin Chinese; it was founded in 2008 to meet the demand of Chinese learners everywhere. Using our proprietary technology, platform, and materials, we teach live on the Internet with our certified Chinese consultants, allowing clients to learn anytime and anywhere.

DM: You emphasized TutorMing is a high-tech education company. Why is it?

Eric: TutorMing has developed all of its technology in-house. We are one of the first asynchronous Chinese learning platforms out there. We never stop investing in R&D to provide increasingly better user and learner experience.

DM: Can you tell us more about your class?

Eric: Yes – our classes are conducted live with Chinese consultants. Class sizes are typically 1-3 people per class. We use proprietary technology, platform, and materials for teaching. All of our consultants are required to have verified stable Internet connection.

DM: Could you please illustrate the booking process to us?

Eric: Our booking process is easy. Clients just need to log in here and select a time for class. The beauty of our platform over other ways of tutoring is that clients don’t have to spend time negotiating an appointment time that works for both the client and the consultant. We offer classes anytime of the week. This is particularly useful for parents who want to save time as they juggle other daily tasks.

DM: The payment is one of the things learners care most. It seems there is no tuition fee information on your site. Why? Can you tell our audiences the cost?

Eric: Classes are typically around $20 each. The duration of the learning process starts at one year. We believe commitment to learning is very important.

DM: What advantages does your team have? What are your strengths compared to the other online Chinese schools?

Eric: One of the key differentiators is definitely our customer protection service. We are always there to help. We want to provide the best learning experience possible. The other differentiator is our proprietary DCGS (Dynamic Course Generation System), which dynamically matches clients with materials and consultants of the right level and interest.

DM: What is the biggest challenge as an online Chinese school?

Eric: One of the biggest challenges in online Chinese schools is that learners have yet to discover all the benefits and flexibility that they can provide. With a live learning model like ours, clients can save a lot of time and effort in searching for the right teacher and right schedule. The whole point of online Chinese school is to help solve logistic problems, and we are good at that.

DM: Can you share your future plan with us? I hear that there is a TutorGlass, what is it?

Eric: Going forward, TutorMing will continue to invest in the platform and seek to make the learning experience more ubiquitous. TutorGlass is a technology we are developing based on Google Glass. The idea is to allow clients see what the consultants are seeing, creating a completely different learning perspective. Aside from that, TutorMing has a number of new features and resources in the pipeline for learners.

After the interview with Eric, we decided to take a look at TutorMing ourselves and see what it had to offer. With our interview with Eric and our experience with the online school, here is how we viewed it.

A Brief Review about TutorMing

Pros

• Funded by the famous Chinese company, Alibaba, the whole TutorGroup is reliable, as well as the Chinese branch TutorMing.
• Technology based system. TutorMing use their patented Dynamic Course Generation System (DCGS), which will make real-time adjustments to courses based on your self-assessment, consultants’ evaluations, and other relevant parameters. Their IT team will support the tech things better.
• Small size (1-3) class makes sure there is enough time for you to communicate with tutor.
• According to their consultant list, it seems the tutors are very professional and you can learn both traditional and simplified Chinese characters.
• All their teaching materials are made by their tutors and updated all the time from K12 to Business Chinese.
• Privacy protection. If you are shy and don`t want to get pressure from tutor, then the one-way webcam system is made for you. You can see the tutor, but he/she can`t see you.
• It`s extremely flexible around refund. All reasons are fully considered.

Cons

• The package you book will valid for just one year and there are no minimum participation requirements. Self-discipline is necessary.
• Be careful about the penalty of cancel. You must cancel or reschedule the booked class 4 hours prior to class to avoid penalty.
• As it`s all automatic booking process, you may not learn with the same tutor each class.
• The privacy protection feature does not allow consultants to see the students, so consultants rely on verbal cues, and no visual cues, in teaching.
• Other online classes are between $12 – $25 dollars each on average. TutorMing`s classes are typically around $20 each. It`s located in medium high.

As the E-learning industry expands vastly, it is hard to choose which one would be the best option. Many of us have tried various online learning resources and there are numerous Chinese schools that you may like to know about. Please tell us what and which ones you want to know about. We will be happy to interview or review their products and give our impressions about the company/services.

Also, if you have tried TutorMing before or had great or bad service with other companies, please comment below and share your experience with us. If you have any question about TutorMing’s service, feel free to ask and comment below! Good Luck with your studies!

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Pros and Cons of Discovering Chinese Pro

Pros

• The app covers a lot of content and it covers it well.
• There are four volumes comprised of twelve lessons each.

• There are many illustrations and animations to keep students with visual and auditory learning styles engaged. The user interface of the Discovering Chinese Pro software is very intuitive and easy to master.
• It provides unit assessments for students.

• It allows teachers to track homework, practice scores and unit assessments.
• Its extensive flexibility allows it to have a high school class or private tutoring curriculum formatted around the use of this series of books.
• It works on laptops, iPads, and Android devices.
• The collection includes many different materials, including books, worksheets, calligraphy exercise sets, CDS and teacher’s books.
• It takes advantage of the “flipped classroom” concept and provides added flexibility for those who prefer to study alone.

Cons

• Regarding the prices, the smartest option would be to subscribe to it through the online curriculum in Better Chinese or via the iOS app “Discovering Chinese Pro,” since you can get a much more cost-effective deal out of it.
• However, if you are an analog learner who can’t learn from a computer or from an iPad, then you should only buy one semester’s worth of books at a time, and only get the reading books and CDs, which are the most essential materials for your learning. The calligraphy exercises you can do on any piece of paper by repeating the writing of new characters. That way you can learn everything you would learn from the entire collection, but without spending all of that money. But if you can afford the splurge, then get it!

Recommended For:

• High school and middle school students with no previous Mandarin learning experience.
• Young adults with no previous experience of learning Mandarin.
• Prospective college students preparing to take the Chinese SAT and /or AP Chinese Language and Culture tests (use more advanced books in collection, such as 2A and 2B).

“Discovering Chinese Pro” selects its topics similarly to other textbooks but it goes even further with its attention to details and variety of practice opportunities. The most interesting thing about the app is that it is tailored towards an e-classroom style.

While the e-classroom is a great idea in theory, one hopes that principals and school boards will have the courage and confidence to try something new and thereby change the future of Chinese-learning, and even learning in general. For all schools, teachers and students who progressively embrace the flipped classroom model, this application gets a strong recommendation from DigMandarin.

Here is a short interview of Better Chinese

DigMandarin asked several questions which the audiences would be interested in. If you have more questions, please feel free to comment below. We will get the answers for you as soon as possible.

1. Is the Discovering Chinese series available both offline and online?

Yes and no. On the iPad, the content is available offline. Through the Web, the content will not be accessible. Teachers and students can also purchase the companion textbook which is like a traditional printed textbook that can be used when the website it down. It includes the lesson materials, vocabulary and grammar sections.

2. Why did Better Chinese make this kind of online learning system? Are you mainly focusing on the online education? What do you think of it?

We believe that the future of learning will be digital, but in the interim it’s changing the way students are learning.

We focus on learning. We want to provide teachers with the best set of classroom materials and training to help teachers whether they choose to teach via traditional or technology forward methods. That is why Discovering Chinese Pro is not only a digital curriculum, but also has a traditionally printed companion textbook for teachers who prefer to teach in a more traditional manner.

“Teachers want a seamless platform that gives them multiple touch points to connect with students and provide them with the ability to customize the curriculum and differentiated instruction.” This is a James Lin quote. “Discovering Chinese Pro combines a proven Chinese language curriculum with classroom management tools to create a highly effective Chinese language learning environment with high participation rates.”

3. How is the participation system working? How can the teachers and students cooperate learning with each other?

Before technology, to encourage speaking practice, the teacher would ask questions and have the students respond or call on certain students to respond. However, what would happen is that typically the more outgoing or confident students tended to respond more and the students who were more shy or nervous about their pronunciation would tend to participate less.

Through DCP, students are able to practice speaking in smaller groups or individually and receive feedback from the teacher in class or outside of class through our audio and video feedback options. For example, after reviewing a speaking submission, the teacher can record her own voice with the correct pronunciation for the student to hear and practice.

As a result, our teachers have seen participations rates on the speaking front increase dramatically through this program.

4. What distinguishes Better Chinese from other Chinese learning books?

There are many factors that distinguish us from others. These are :

1. Our expertise in teaching non-heritage learners and our ability to make Chinese approachable for them to learn.
2. Our training programs combine industry thought leaders with the practical usage of our materials. For example, how do you create a flipped classroom with our materials.
3. Our technology pedagogy. Given our location in Silicon Valley, we have always found ways to leverage technology in fresh new ways for the Chinese language classroom.

5. What is your future plan about the e-education?

“We are at a very interesting intersection in time where access to technology, understanding about learning, and innovation in technology are converging.

Our plans for the future is to better capture learning styles and learning progress to provide students and instructors more clarity about where they are, to better offer differentiated instructions as well as customized instruction.” James Lin

co-author: Dhruv Chatterjee

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Italki Is “All In One”!

Plenty of pro’s:

You may already have some favorite websites where you meet teachers for distant learning and get advice from native speakers. However, after signing up on italki.com you will probably forget them. This is because italki.com provides almost everything you need in one place.

It is a teachers’ marketplace with elements of both social networks and forums. Here, it is easy to find either a professional tutor or a language exchange partner. I also like the blog where teachers write posts about language learning. It is a great resource of knowledge about Mandarin Chinese grammar, Chinese idioms, slang, etc. This section is highly recommended for advanced students who wish to learn topics that are not covered by textbooks. On italki, there is a clear division of teachers into groups. Professional teachers provide scanned copies of their teaching certification. Otherwise they can work as “community teachers”. This policy seems to be wise and fair for both teachers and students. It also helps to keep prices reasonable.

And a few con’s:

• You can’t browse teachers’ profiles by price (from lowest to highest) or other criteria.
• Although italki’s intro promises you tools for measuring results and tracking progress, there is certain lack of online tests and interactive exercises (at least, for Mandarin learners). However, I see here a great potential for italki! If someday they add options for “DIY language courses” (like those on Livemocha) the website would become the most powerful resource for language learners on the web.

Amazing Feature: Instant Learning

Many pros, no cons!

This is a relatively new feature that makes both students and teachers happy. If you have spare time, practice your skills without scheduling in advance – with a teacher who is ready to teach you right now. It is very cheap, practical and handy!

Get Your Writing And Speaking Checked!

Plenty of pro’s:

Italki’s users are engaged in various activities including correcting essays, answering questions and participating in discussions. The members of Italki community are allowed to submit not only their pieces of writing but also their voice records. This is very helpful for improving writing and speaking skills as well as making new friends.

Small cons:

• Very many users say they would be much happier if they had a possibility to edit their own entries in “Notebook”.
• Since there are too many users and too many writing pieces on the feed, not all of them get quick response. However, it looks like you can improve this by buying some ITCs (italki’s currency).Besides that, italki is currently testing the idea of giving users points. This could even motivate users to correct essays more often!

Get Encouraged!

When you learn Mandarin, the ups and downs are unavoidable. Sometimes you may fell that you have no will anymore to carry on studying. The friendly community keeps you encouraged. You may share your worries with other students and get good advice from either learners or teachers. Italki really makes you open-minded. It helps to build confidence between people. I would call this website “Airbnb for language learners”. Thanks to italki, people begin to realize that teaching languages is not a deal of only professional teachers anymore. Any person may make a great input in your language progress. Just dive into this big world and try all options on italki! This time DigMandarin asked some benefits for our dear audiences! Italki will give you 10USD credits for each account, if you want to sign up and have a try on italki.

Here is a short interview with Kevin, the CEO of italki. DigMandarin asked several questions which the audiences would be interested in. If you have more questions, please feel free to comment below. We will get the answers for you as soon as possible.

Question 1: What are the standards for selecting teachers on italki? I`ve viewed some popular teachers on italki whose education and work experience don’t match with the language they are teaching. However these teachers are tagged as professional teachers. How do you make sure these are qualified teachers?

Kevin: We have two types of teachers – Professional Teachers and Community Tutors. Professional Teachers are exactly that, people who teach as a job, have an educational background as a teacher, or have an education certificate (CELTA, etc.). Community Tutors are just native or near-native speakers that can be helpful as a speaking partner or for general homework help. For example, I am not a teacher and don’t have a teaching background, but I could definitely help someone with their homework or to have a conversation. We screen people when they apply to be teachers on italki. They upload documents to us which our teacher service team checks. Some teachers are English teachers for their home countries (example, a teacher with Russian nationality, who teaches English to Russians in Russia). This person is not a native English speaker, but has a background in teaching, and is specialized for teaching English to Russians. In general we leave it to students to pick a teacher that is right for them. Rather than set one standard, we allow people to choose the teacher that fits their needs. Some people don’t think you can learn English from a Filipino teacher, but it might be right for someone else.

Question 2:Will italki train their own teachers? And do you have some highly recommended teachers? If yes, what is the criterion?

Kevin: italki does not plan to train its own teachers. In general, we don’t have a system for “highly recommended” teachers. Some teachers have long and positive teaching records, and they tend to be more expensive than teachers that are relatively new to the system. Some students care a lot about teacher experience, while some students are more price sensitive. New teachers also generally have more time to help their students. Students can make their own choices about which teacher is right for them.

Question 3:There are lots of languages on italki. How does Mandarin Chinese fare compared to other languages? Could you please tell us your views on the Chinese teaching market?

Kevin: On italki, Mandarin Chinese is growing in popularity, but it is still a relatively small proportion of the lessons on the website. It’s a little more popular than Japanese, and less popular than Spanish. In general, we’re very positive on the market for online language learning. Chinese lessons from italki teachers are very reasonably priced compared to the local prices in developed countries. We think the Chinese teaching market should also have lots of exciting growth in the near term and long term. China is increasingly important in global business and trade, and we expect the interest in Chinese to continue to grow.

Question 4: How many Chinese teachers and learners are currently active on Italki? Can you describe their activity levels?

Kevin: We can’t say the exact figures, but there are hundreds of thousands of Chinese users, and hundreds of Chinese teachers. Our community is very broad, and there are people from everywhere in the world. We’ve found that the community is a little harder on Chinese users. Despite the growing interest in Chinese, the ratio of people who are interested in learning Chinese relative to people interested in learning English is very unbalanced.

Question 5: Is Skype the main teaching tool? How to measure the teaching quality? If there are disputes between teachers and students, how to monitor and solve?

Kevin: Skype is the main communication tool. We’ve found that Skype offers the best sound and video quality globally, and at the right price! It’s already a widely known, accepted and used tool. We could build our own, but it would be hard to get to that level of quality and global coverage. After we do the screening, teaching quality is largely handled by feedback from the students. Students can leave honest feedback for teachers and a rating on their lessons. If there is a serious problem, the student or teacher can write to italki customer service to personally handle the problem. Since both sides care about their personal reputation, we’ve found that resolving disputes is generally not difficult.

Ok, don’t forget to get the 10USD of  italki promotion code here.

The post Italki Review: Why Italki Is a Website With a Difference? appeared first on .

Thumbs Up:

• The apps have a comprehensive list of topics for each level.
• The apps cover all questions types as well as key phrases.
• The app interface is extremely easy to understand and navigate
• There is practice for all test sections – listening, reading and writing.
• The apps are completely free to use so far.
• The practice questions are in the same format for each section as they would be on the real test.
• Practice sections are appropriately adapted so that you can complete even reading and writing parts on the phone.

Thumbs Down:

• There is little to criticize about the layout and completeness of this app but one should be careful not to become too over-reliant on it because of its good qualities. It is important to study through other mediums too since studying on your phone, or ipad will make you tired quicker than studying in a course, or from a book.

Review:

‘Hello HSK’ is a wonderful supplement to your HSK study. The interface is very convenient to navigate allowing you to choose firstly which type of practice you want (listening, reading and writing) and then following this up with practice that comes straight from the test. On top of that, the app also provides an overview of each practice section, and what it means to be successful in that section.

Recommendation:

• ‘Hello HSK’ gets a strong recommendation because of its completeness, and user-friendliness. The app is simple enough to navigate but also complicated enough that it covers every possible kind of question you can encounter, with the listening sections covering many possible topics to ensure you get a lot of exposure to different material.
• While the app is near perfect on its completeness and user-friendliness, HSK students should not take this review to mean that they should be wholly reliant on this app too. It would be best used as a strong supplement to the course/book that you are learning from.
• However in situations where you have no access to those things, and especially in situations where you would normally choose to do unproductive things on your ipad, and iphone, this app is the perfect alternative as it manages to teach you Chinese and prepare you for that test at the same time. To be honest, while I do not plan to take the HSK myself, I will be using these apps simply to learn Chinese.

Here is the interview about the series APP. The producer will introduce more details about “Hello HSK”.

Q1: How can someone best use your HSK series?

Many HSK examinees could only improve their testing skills through training institutions and books in the past. But now, you can open the apps of Hello HSK on your smart phone on the subway. We have listed the latest classification framework and have sorted the testing points clearly. Each category was separated into different topics, and each topic contains comprehensive content summary, key words and useful expressions. After reading through all the content, you can do a set of exercises to consolidate the content you have learned (each exercise contains an accurate and detailed analysis). As a professional training platform, Hello HSK adopts cloud storage server, and is comprised of websites and mobile applications and it supports computer, mobile phone, and tablet. In order to improve HSK learners’ learning and training, Hello HSK has achieved all-around online functions including new HSK learning classification outline, electronic question types, intelligent question correcting process, detailed explanation of key, capability evaluation, error collection, notes, adding to favorite, etc.

Specification of the main functions of Hello HSK:

Hello HSK application contains three parts, listening, reading and writing. Each part is comprehensively and detailedly classified into answering techniques, key words, useful expressions and lots of exercises which keep highly consistent with the past exam paper of HSK. It supports local language identification and four languages, including Chinese, Japanese, English and Korean.

Q2: What are your strengths comparing with other Chinese learning APPs?

Hello HSK’s comparative advantages in technical performance

Compared with other competitors’ products, Hello HSK has its unique advantages:
Hello HSK is the world’s only all-terminal HSK exam training platform.

1) Speed and content are constantly and rapidly updated.
Since Hello HSK came online in December, 2013, the content has been updated with one level a month. Besides, new updated versions of website are being launched continuously, and various practical online learning tools are coming online rapidly.

2) Pay more attention to the user’s experience
Hello HSK always lays great emphasis on the user’s comfortable experience. On one hand, the adoption of cloud server can guarantee people from different countries of the world achieve the same quick access rate. On the other hand, Hello HSK has changed the current version of online mock examination training of HSK. The interface, one question covers one page, has already been changed. All questions have been divided into three parts according to the requirements of examination, and all the content has been integrated into one piece of examination paper. Furthermore, the answer sheet function will also bring you a real experience of answering questions on paper.

3) This product can provide users with a comfortable and convenient platform experience, together with online customer service and automatic language recognition functions including Chinese, Japanese, English and Korean at a very reasonable price. As for the design of learning content, we start with the easiest part and let students finish the whole learning process step by step. In order to let students learn Chinese effectively, each question also comes with an analysis which is accurate and easy to understand.
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4) Unique service
Apart from online customer service, the four language versions of Hello HSK have all been equipped with its corresponding social platform services which can let users reach the product customer service through multiple channels, so as to deal with the problems they face during their using and learning processes.

5) Let customers feel happy
Since HSK is a kind of exam-oriented examination and the learners work very hard, Hello HSK has added many humanized features such as considerate reminders of handing in papers, paying attention to rest, and a good variety of learning plans, etc.

6) Hello HSK platform provides learners with learning materials and massive amounts of classified training exercises specifically for listening, reading and writing, as well as past exam papers and dozens of mock tests. The difficulty, types and requirements of these test questions are all highly consistent with that of HSK. Users can conveniently do HSK exercises and find the largest selection of HSK materials through our one-stop service. After all, efficiency means saving users more time and energy.

7) Price advantage:
The quantity of items provided by each level of Hello HSK is equal to over 50 question sets. Each question set is worth twenty yuan according to the current market price. If calculated this way; each level needs you to spend at least one thousand yuan. But now, you can use all the content on the website and applications of six levels simultaneously for just 20 yuan a month. Through comparison, the price advantage of Hello HSK is extremely obvious.

Q3: What do you hope it will become in the future?

We hope to tweet personalized Chinese learning content according to the user’s Chinese proficiency and using situation, so as to help users improve their Chinese systematically and effectively, truly experiencing the aim of promoting training and learning through testing.

Q4: I hear that you are running a new site called Yep!Chinese. Can you tell us something about it?

Sure. Here at Yep! Chinese you can really enjoy learning Chinese through our unmatched variety of lesson topics. We’re always updating to bring you the latest, easiest-to-use and practical features.
There are three general types of channel at Yep! Chinese: Learn, Discover and Explore. And we provide lessons and resources for all levels of Chinese learner. Our levels are in part determined by the proficiency descriptors of the CEFRL (Common European Framework of Reference for Languages) and the HSK Chinese Proficiency Test.
Whether you’re working out, on the way to work, or even travelling in China, with Yep! Chinese you can learn simply at the click of a button! Our ten-minute lessons are bite-size chunks of all you need to know about Chinese language and culture!

The post Preparing For HSK — “Hello HSK” Review appeared first on .

CJ: Can you introduce Written Chinese to us?

Nora: Yes, basically, we are creating learning tools for people interested in learning about written Chinese, of course. We have a free online dictionary. It is very different from other dictionaries, in that it gives you the most relevant answers first. So, instead of giving you all the definitions, you will get the most relevant ones at the top, so that it is much easier to use, especially for people who are just learning Chinese because they are not aware that this character is not very common or this one is a common character. It has a lot of other tools, as well, such as the audio pronunciation, radical count, and how to write the character. We also produced language learning applications like the one DigMandarin reviewed, the bigrams app, a characters app, and then we are working on designing a dictionary application, too, because right now our dictionary is just on the website. Our main users are in the US and then we also have quite a few in Thailand and in India, and some in Australia, as well. Mostly, the main users are from English-speaking countries.

CJ: How many types of apps do you have?

Nora: Right now, we only have two mobile applications, the WCC Bigrams, which you reviewed, and then the other one is a WCC Character, which is a similar app but instead of having two-character words, it just has one character.

CJ: So why did you come up with this idea to create the Chinese learning App?

Nora: At the time, there were not a lot of applications on the market that were really good resources for learning Chinese, so we just wanted to make it easier for the learners who don’t think it needs to be difficult and know you don’t need to read a long book about Chinese before you can learn the basics and continue your education. So, I just wanted to make it easy for people. Like when you are on the subway, or on the bus, or you are waiting somewhere, you can just quickly flip open your phone and study for a few minutes every day. I am really a believer that language learning happens in small amounts throughout the day, instead of sitting down and studying for 2 hours every 2 days. I think it is much better to just take 5 minutes here and 5 minutes there throughout the day. So, we hope to create apps that allow people to do that. Also, with our apps, you can really chart your progress. With our app, you can see how literate you are in Chinese, so it is really nice. You can see, so I know 50 characters, so I can already recognize 8% of Chinese text, or something like that. These aren’t exact numbers, but it is really easy to track your progress too.

CJ: What is the biggest advantage and disadvantage of your apps?

Nora: Definitely the advantage is that they are just really relevant. For example, I studied using Rosetta Stone and they give you a lot of words but they are not really words that you would necessarily see when you are out on the street, or when you are trying to read the menu, or when you want to read a book, or something like that. So the words you are given are words that are frequently seen in Chinese text. So I think that is the biggest advantage, that it is just like a formula that helps you learn the word that you see more often first and then works its way to the more less common words that you would see. For right now, it is just a flashcard program, but I hope in the future that we can add some kind of testing so you can see how well you know the first 50 characters, the first 100 characters, and then you have a test. I think that would really help people out.

CJ: Then what is your biggest challenge as a Chinese character spreader?

Nora: Sometimes it is difficult because, in Chinese, every character means so many different things, when you compare it to English. So I think the challenge is to try to give an English speaker the understanding of the character itself, because it is very difficult. It is like when you learn Spanish or French after you know English, it is very easy because one word in English equals one word in Spanish. But in Chinese, one word in Chinese can mean many, many different things in English. So our challenge is to just find a way to explain to the user exactly what the character means.

CJ: So what are your strengths compared to the other Chinese character learning tools?

Nora: For one, our system is complete. Once you purchase it, you have everything. You don’t have to keep buying more and more. And another, I think it is really customizable. You can choose exactly how you want to study the characters, so you can customize it for your own learning. It is very flexible.

CJ: What is the difference between the free version and the paid version?

Nora: The free version has all the features except you can only see up to 50 characters. For example, with WCC Character, you can see the first 50 characters for the free version and then with the paid version, you see something like 8,000. It is a huge number, like all the ones you would really need to use. Chinese learners will see everything. It`s the same with bigrams.

CJ: I found that there are no sentence examples. So, how do they know how to use these words? Is it just like a dictionary?

Nora: The dictionary does actually have example sentences. The one online does, but in the dictionary, the sentences are from a database and they are not very good, so we are actually creating our own sentence database. But it takes a long time, because for every entry, you need to have a sentence, and it needs to be translated properly, so it takes a long time to create that. Right now it does not seem like there are a lot of good resources and for a small company to create a database like that, it takes a lot of work. We will be creating sentences, but it just takes a lot of time as you can imagine because there are thousands of characters and, with the bigrams too, it just takes a long time to create these databases.

CJ: Why do you choose making a diagrams app? Because you know, in Chinese, we have a lot of one-character, three-character, or four-character words

Nora: Because I think there are more two-character words, for sure. I already do have the one-character for an application. I don’t know, maybe in the future we can create a three-character or four-character one like idioms (Chengyu) or something. I think the two-character application is more useful than a three-character application right now. Especially if you are learning, because most concepts can be expressed using two.

CJ: “WCC Bigrams is a good app for students who are at the advanced level and are focused on improving their reading skills”, our writer Matt did a review and he said so. Is it really only for the advanced level student?

Nora: I don’t agree with that. I mean, it is definitely useful for advanced students, but beginners can use it too. Actually, I wish this app would have existed when I first started learning Chinese. When I first started learning Chinese, I didn’t realize so many words were expressed using two characters instead of one, so I was trying to create sentences using characters one by one by one, and it just doesn’t work in Chinese. So I think, even for a beginner, it is really important for them to understand the concept of bigrams and I don’t agree that it is an advanced student’s tool. I really think it is good for beginners, as well.

CJ: What do you want to say to our “DigMandarin” readers?

Nora: I don’t think there is one tool that can teach you everything you need to know in Chinese, so I think it is important to find a good mix of tools to use. What is most important, I think, is to try to use the dictionary because I think it is really useful and people just don’t know about it. For me, as a Chinese learner, I always use our dictionary because Google translate is good, but it does not really break down anything for you, and the other dictionaries that exist out there don’t give you the most relevant characters first. So, I just hope readers of DigMandarin are able to use our tools as one of those that helps them study.

Maybe you are one of the users of Written Chinese Tools. What do you think of it? If you have any suggestion or question, just feel free to comment below. And if you are also using some other Chinese learning tools, then don`t hesitate to share with us. Just comment below. Or if you have studied a tool and have your own thoughts, you can also write a review for DigMandarin. We`d like to help you share your views and experience with all the learners.

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CJ:Could you please introduce your program, your package, to us?

Andreas: We basically have two programs. One is a general program in Beijing. Now, in Beijing, we have a school in the Central Business District. We don’t have a huge school, because we want to have a bit of a personal service with small groups. And our focus in Beijing is home stays, because I learned very well when I was learning Mandarin that where I made the most important step to becoming fluent was not in the classroom. You need to be in a situation where the other person doesn’t speak any English, so you need to use Mandarin in all situations. And so, Home Stays are very important for us. That’s, for me, the main part of the program. Then, the other part is where we have very small classes in Beijing. Either more classes or small classes, so our class has a maximum of six students per class, and I think that’s really the biggest you should have. Anything above that is simply not good for learning. So, this is the idea in Beijing. Small group classes and Home Stays.

CJ: What is the Home Stay program? Can you explain more?

Andreas: It`s a full immersion program. The students will live with a Chinese family and in a no-English environment. This program base is in Chengde. It is about two hours Northeast of Beijing. It’s a very beautiful city because you have USECO World Heritage sites there. It’s much smaller than Beijing. The pace of life is much slower. And nobody in Chengde speaks English. So, you will speak only Mandarin. And not only just Mandarin, because it is probably one of the cities in all of China with the best Mandarin pronunciation. And there are no foreigners around, so you will not be speaking English around there. So, people live with Home Stay families. There are no other options. All classes are one-on-one. We do not want students to be in a class together, because if students are in class together, then there are other foreigners, and they will speak English to each other again. They live with their Chinese teachers, with their Chinese friends, and they speak, dream, and live Mandarin 24/7. It’s the whole time through. You never speak another language. So, really, Mandarin becomes a part of your life. It’s your daily language.

We also organize activities for people with Chinese friends. So, for example, if you like hiking, we’ll ask for you to go on a hiking trip with a Chinese group, or if you like badminton, we find a badminton club for you. There’re a lot of things you can do in Chengde. In the winter, you can go skiing. But this is all Chinese. You never do this with other foreigners, so you are forced to be part of Chinese culture and it becomes natural to you. As you can see, the progress of students in Mandarin is phenomenal. They progress so much faster than anyone else. I mean, we have students in Beijing that you get from zero to fluent in seven months.

CJ: So, your school mainly focuses on training spoken Chinese, but reading and writing, right?

Andreas: We do teach Mandarin and teach Chinese characters, of course, but our focus is always on spoken. We also train reading and writing, of course, because if you want to learn Mandarin – let’s say up to intermediate level – you could do it without characters, but beyond intermediate level, you cannot learn Mandarin without characters. So we teach both of them together. Our focus is of course on spoken Mandarin. Our aim is to help people to speak Mandarin, but you need Chinese characters if you want to get to fluency. It’s not something you choose. So, we do teach Chinese characters. There are some people, of course, with our one-on-one classes, for example (we do very tailered courses), who just want to learn some Chinese, maybe for travelling around China for a few weeks or something like this. Now, for these people, you can leave Chinese characters out, but most of the people who study at our school are very serious about learning Mandarin. They do want to be able to speak fluent Mandarin.

CJ: But in the Home Stay, they will just practice their spoken Chinese, not Chinese characters. Will they learn the Chinese characters in their group class or one-on-one class?

Andreas: Yeah, also it’s very important how you learn Chinese characters. So, you need to understand where the radicals come from, and then you break the characters apart and you understand the system behind it, because Chinese characters are actually not as difficult as most people think. So, this is taught to you in class.
I mean, we try to help our students as well in Home Stays. You see the Chinese characters with the object everywhere, because you need to see characters again and again and again and again. It’s a lot of repetition that’s important.

CJ: So, how many students are there in your school in total now?

Andreas: At this moment, maybe one to two hundred. But that includes students who study part-time. So, people study every day at the school; it’s probably a little bit less. They came from all over the world. So, in their group lesson, they have a very international environment. One group class is a maximum of six people.

CJ: How long do students stay with a Chinese family?

Andreas: Well, for as long as they stay. They stay for two weeks or they stay for one year. But actually, you don’t usually need one year. If you stay in a Home Stay family and you study hard, after seven, eight, or nine months, you are fluent. You don’t need to do it anymore. But, you can stay as long as you want, of course. They could choose. Also, if some people come for a long time, maybe they will live with the Home Stay family for the first three months, and then, because they want to have a little bit more freedom, they move somewhere else. The courses are very flexible; we start courses every two to three weeks. So, you can really start at any point of the year and you can continue for as long as you want.

CJ: What if the student can’t adapt to the life in the Home Stay?

Andreas: We’ve never really had that. Well, if there’s a problem, then we would just put them into another family, or we would talk to the family. It’s quite rare. I mean, if there’s really a problem with the Home Stay family, we’ll change them, but these people – of course they know that they will be living in a family, so you tell them before what to expect. Chinese families are very welcoming, very nice and friendly, usually, towards foreigners. So, most people really enjoy living there. So, if you ask somebody in our programs what they enjoyed most, almost everybody will say the Home Stay. We have one person who is just in charge of the Home Stay program. So, whenever there are communication difficulties or cultural difficulties between the Home Stay family and the student, we get involved. So we have a foreigner and a Chinese person who are trying to understand the problems from both sides, so you have a foreign perspective and a Chinese perspective. It is a lot of work – a Home Stay program – and it’s probably the reason why we are, I think, the only school in China that really focuses on Home Stays, because it is very difficult

CJ: How do you select the Home Stay family?

Andreas: Very strict. We of course go over there. We talk to them. We interview them. We look at the apartments, of course, to make sure they’re all right. We talk to them; find out if they speak English. You know, some Home Stays families say: “I would like to do Home Stay and the student should teach my child English,” and this is not suitable at all, of course, because our students—they should learn Mandarin. They’re not English language teachers. So, we talk to them a lot. Obviously, the Home Stay families today are experienced. You have to do it for a long, long time. We’ve been doing Home Stays for five years, and this is our specialty.

CJ: I also saw there is a choice that the student can also teach in the Home Stay family. What is that? Just like an English Home Stay tutor?

Andreas: Yes. So, there you teach English while living in a family, and in return you get the Home Stay cheaper. Now, this is an option. I personally don’t think this is very good for improving your Mandarin, because teaching English means that your brain focuses on speaking English a lot. And in the family, you end up speaking a lot of English as opposed to Mandarin, and that’s not good for your Chinese progress, but it makes it cheaper. That’s the only advantage.

CJ: Do you have any tips about learning Chinese? Can you share with our readers?

Andreas: If you are not in China, all right, then it is more difficult, but you can still immerse yourself. The first thing is to find Chinese University exchange students around your hometown and speak with them. Find people who can’t speak English, or whatever your language is, and speak with them. Try to find Mandarin speakers and get into that culture, even before you come to China. Also, surround yourself with Mandarin. So, when I studied Mandarin, in my home, I had stickers with Chinese characters on every single piece of furniture. So, I would see characters, so I was surrounded by characters the whole time. Once you are in China, do not speak English. Try not to speak English as much as possible. And this sounds simple, but it is not, because we are naturally lazy and we will speak English if we’re given an opportunity. Don’t get into that situation where you speak a lot of English. Get out of there. If they’re Chinese people and they speak very good English and they want to talk to you, go away. Find people who don’t speak English. And there are so many people in China who don’t speak English, so it’s not a problem. Immerse yourself into Mandarin. Speak it the whole time and enjoy it. I mean, you need to enjoy Mandarin because Chinese is difficult, so you need to love China. You need to have a good time here. It needs to be part of your daily life. You need to find fun things. Have fun. Enjoy it, but all Mandarin. No English.

After I talked to Andreas and knew the program better. I was impressed by his passion and ambition in Mandarin education. Maybe this is just a start of a language education experiment. It`s a new view for Mandarin Chinese learning, even if it`s already quite popular abroad. Andreas and his Live the Language School are working so hard for it. Now they want to start a new branch of the school in Shanghai. Let`s look forward to the new one and see what will happen next.

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Introduction

CJ: Do you mind introducing yourself to our readers so that we can know you better?

Carmen: My name is Carmen, and I do a YouTube Channel called Off the Great Wall. Right now, I’m in New York, Manhattan. Actually, I didn’t really want to be a host, but before doing this, I was a producer of indie programs. I was asked to do some sort of program that talks about the social happenings of China and things like that, and so I had the idea of doing this. I tried to find a host and I found Dan. So, Dan is the guy, but we didn’t find any females. So, I said,: “Okay, fine, I’ll do it.” Gradually, I got used to it and, actually, I’m not that bad, so I continued doing it.

In the beginning of the show, we were actually looking at what’s viral in China. And then we would basically talk about it. Dan is more like an Asian that is more Americanized than I am, so he would ask me things in a more Western way. He wouldn’t understand the Chinese—that sort of thinking. And then we realized that we should probably target people like Dan, who don’t know much about Chinese culture, and educate them in a way that they would accept, because we were talking from a point of view that people wouldn’t really understand. So, I think that’s how it kind of evolved. And, obviously, it has to be entertaining, as well, because young people nowadays, their attention span is so short. If it’s not entertaining, if it’s like a lecture, nobody is going to watch.

CJ: I found that there are various types of your videos. Which one is more popular?

Carmen: Well, we have a skit every single week. So, the skit is basically like a comedic looking at some of the cultural things that overseas Chinese and overseas Americans go through. We do educational videos, which we call RMV, because we couldn’t come up with a name, so we call them Random Miscellaneous Videos. Whatever random educational stuff that we can think of, we put it in. So, that one is usually me or Dan speaking in front of the camera, telling the audience about something. I think the most popular one is definitely the Chinese Family Tree. That one basically launched us from when we only had a few. And now we have the idea—because I experience it myself—of: “Oh, my aunts are called different, you know, from my dad’s side and from my mom’s side.” That’s really interesting because, in Western cultures, that never happens. It’s just aunt. And some Westerners just call them by their first name. Let’s draw this out and let’s just put it up, and that was very accepted. It went very viral, and I think that is the most popular video that we have, and a lot of people were introduced to us through that video.

Merging the East and the West

CJ: You often comment on some social and cultural issues. What is your perspective? Do you make those videos with your Westerner view or Chinese view?

Carmen: I don’t think of it really as a Westerner view or Chinese view. I think of it as my view, basically. For some of them, I can’t make up stuff because these are the facts. And if I wanted to put a view on it, I would say, at the end, “I think this. What do you guys think?” But the facts are the facts. It’s not something I make up. Our goal is really to show the cultural essence of China. They sometimes feel some of the things that we talk about are negative, but it’s not because we want to put a negative image on China. I just feel like, if these things do exist, then we should bring them out into the open and raise awareness and discuss it. Or else, how do you improve if you only talk about the good stuff and not the bad stuff? So, that’s just something we want to present to people. I feel like I’m in a unique position that I can experience both because I can actually understand Chinese and read Chinese. I can go online and see what people think. And I can also see and understand what the Westerners think. So, I don’t really put it in a Western view or Chinese view. I just think I do it through my view and I just connect the two together.

CJ: So, it’s not just for satisfying the curiosity of Westerners.

Carmen: No. Actually, that’s not even something that we think about when we brainstorm. We just think about what we think is entertaining and interesting, because a lot of the things that we do, I actually didn’t know myself until I went in to do the research and I thought: “Wow, this is definitely something I want to share with the audience.” There’s just so much to learn about China. It’s basically unlimited resources and materials to talk about, and China has a really deep history and culture. 5000 years of civilization. And I feel like we really, really need to treasure this because, a lot of the things we see today are a lot of good reflections of Chinese culture. I, myself, am actually interested in that. It’s not something we just pulled out.

Advantages and Challenges of Off the Great Wall

CJ: What are the biggest challenges you faced as hosts about China?

Carmen: Well, since besides being the host, I’m also the producer of the show, I think the biggest challenge is being able to constantly produce high quality videos so frequently and really learning the tools of the trade. Even though I don’t think we’re that popular because, compared to other YouTube Channels, we’re only in the tens of thousands—right now we’re only at 47 thousand—our goal is much, much higher than that. We want to reach a lot more people. So, we’ve only been around for a little bit over a year and YouTube has been around since 2006. So, there’s still a lot to learn. There’re still a lot of people we want to reach. I think, coming out with new stuff all the time, that’s interesting. That’s pretty difficult. And to understand the YouTube space is also a big challenge, because there’s just so much to learn there.

CJ: What is the best part of the job?

Carmen: The best part is really when we get the reactions and comments, because I remember when we had a couple thousand subscribers. And there was a lady who adopted some Chinese girls that messaged us. And, basically, they didn’t have a lot of Chinese people around. And the girls, because they’re a Western family, don’t like being Chinese. They always question: “Oh, why is my skin this color? Why are my eyes so small?” And so, they don’t want to be Chinese. And she said that, after seeing our videos, the little girls decided, “Oh, maybe it’s not so bad being a Chinese person. It’s pretty cool to be Chinese.” So, after seeing that message, we thought we’re really making a difference. Young people are feeling more connected to their roots and they don’t feel ashamed to be Chinese, because they’re watching our videos. And actually, that was the comment that really pushed us forward. And obviously, besides that, we also like the fact that Westerners are being educated about Chinese culture and they are so interested in our culture, as well. So, that’s something cool, as well.

How to learn Mandarin Chinese?

CJ: Are you also learning Mandarin now?

Carmen: I’m a Cantonese person. That’s the first language I learned. So, my Mandarin probably has some Cantonese accent in it but, actually, I’m surprised how many people are surprised that I know both languages. I’m not really formally learning it. I’m not taking classes or anything, but I’m always learning online, watching shows or videos, and reading, so I’m always self-learning, and I like to find out the stories behind words and the characters. And, actually, I didn’t speak it very well before because I was mainly surrounded by Westerners and Cantonese people. So, now that I have started doing this, I’ve made a lot more Mandarin-speaking friends. My Mandarin improved a lot more when I started to talk to them.

CJ: Now a lot of Chinese learners are following you. Do you think your videos could help Chinese learning?

Carmen: Well, the thing is, I’m not a teacher that can teach you the pronunciation and the characters, or whatever. I don’t want to teach them just the language. I want to teach them the culture and how it’s used in real life, because a lot of these teaching Chinese channels are just teaching the words and not really how it’s applied in real life. And I think, in our videos, you can see how it’s applied in real life because we act it out in real life situations. I think, in that way, they will benefit. Because I don’t have the best Mandarin accent, it’s not the best to learn Chinese from me, but to understand how it’s used in the cultural context, in that way they’ll learn a lot.

CJ: Do you have any tips for the learners if they’re learning from your production?

Carmen: Chinese is not something you learn overnight. You just need to enjoy it. And the thing is that you shouldn’t learn it just from textbooks or lectures. You should also learn it from day-to-day life, like TV shows, websites, and videos, and interacting with friends. That would definitely help a lot. And to me, that’s more useful because if I look at the characters, I can see the story behind it and I will remember it better. But if I just see the English words, I don’t know what it means. The meaning behind the word is very important to me.

CJ: What do you want to say to our DigMandarin readers?

Carmen: A lot of people are afraid to learn Chinese, because they’re scared of how hard it is, because they see the characters. Or even if they see the family tree, they say, “Oh, wow, I don’t want to do it anymore.” But you know, learning itself is a lifelong journey. Even Chinese people don’t know all the characters. So, this is something that everyone is learning throughout their entire lives, and there’s always new things coming up. Everyone is learning. So, it’s not something you can learn overnight, and there’re always interesting stories and tales behind every single character. So, enjoy what you’re doing and don’t see it as this huge wall of difficulty. Just actually love it and enjoy it. Then you will find learning is easy, because you won’t think it’s difficult. You’ll just think it’s fun.

The post Learning about Chinese Culture “Off the Great Wall” appeared first on .

Introduction

CJ: Are you also a Chinese learner? Share with us your learning experience.

Kaoru: Actually, I was in Shanghai at Shanghai Jiao Tong University for six months. The reason why I learned this language is really funny. Initially, I was in University in the UK for three years, studying architecture. And at first, it was really weird, because I didn’t really have any interest in learning Chinese. Unfortunately, the Japanese media is really bashing China all the time, as you can imagine. So, I was not interested. But then I saw all these British people taking Chinese in University, and I thought it was really strange because I thought: “Well, who wants to learn Chinese?” because in Japan, no one really learns Chinese or anything. And then I thought: “Okay, cool. Everybody is taking Chinese. I’ll take Chinese too, as an extra credit.” And then I went to the Chinese Department, and they said, “Sorry, we’re all fully booked. There’s no space for you to take Chinese.” I said, “What?” And that was my first year in the University, and in the UK, it’s a three-year course. So, every year, I went back to the Chinese Department, but it was always fully booked. And then, one of my Chinese friends in the UK said: “Hey, why don’t you apply for a scholarship to learn Chinese in Shanghai?” I said: “Oh, that’s so cool.” So, that’s what I did, and then, because I got the scholarship, I went straight from UK to Shanghai. And then, of course, my mom said: “Why are you going to China? It’s so dangerous. ” I said: “No, I’m going to go. I’ve heard lots of good stuff about China. Not bad stuff like in Japan.” And I went, and, that’s how, I came across Chinese initially, because I was so eager to take this class that I was never able to get into because it was always fully booked.

CJ: Could you please introduce your Sexy Mandarin team?

Kaoru: We have people from France, China, US, and Japan. It’s very international. And there’s one thing we all have in common; we all speak, or kind of speak, Chinese, or have a passion for learning Chinese. So, because of that, we get along very well because we share the same interests as well, even though we’re all from different countries. So, it’s really great. We have freelance teachers. So, some of the teachers are in Philippines, and they’re full-time. We try to build their images by having them in the Philippines, because there’s a studio there and they do lots of photo shoots and lots of videos. And then we have the part-time teachers who are located in Hong Kong, but they’re all from mainland China.

About Sexy Mandarin

CJ: Why did you start Sexy Mandarin?

Kaoru: When I went to Shanghai, all my classmates and I had class from 9AM to 12PM. You probably know this, those intensive classes that you have every day and they’re really boring. We have ugly teachers. And then, I felt that we’re not really learning anything. You know, just that the more Chinese I could speak, the cheaper the stuff got. I mean, that’s how I learned my Chinese. And then, all my guy friends are getting so bored in school. I thought: “How come all these teachers are so ugly? I’m not learning anything. I don’t have anyone to impress.” So, I said: “It’s really bad.” I was thinking: “Oh, we should have this in the textbooks.” I found that they all use the same textbooks. “How can that be? I mean isn’t there any other textbook?” Like, if you want to learn English, there are so many different textbooks, right? So, I thought: “Oh, you know, there must be some kind of better way of learning Chinese than this,” and that’s how I really started Sexy Mandarin.

CJ: Why did you design the sexy style to learn Mandarin? Did you just want to have a beautiful teacher? Is it effective?

Kaoru: Well, I think so. I mean even my mom takes the classes; she’s probably one of the few female students. No one chooses to have ugly things or ugly whatever, right? Everybody wants something nice or something pretty, or, you know, something that tastes good. So, that’s why I thought, if you’re going to learn Chinese, why not learn from a pretty person? Why don’t we just have sexy people teaching Chinese, and people might learn faster. And these people might want to learn, so that they can impress people. I mean, it’s a very good incentive. It’s like language and sexuality. It’s linked, I think.

CJ: How many videos have you made? And I saw that your videos are very short. Why? Do you also sell those videos? Is there any teaching methodology?

Kaoru: Well, I think currently, we have about eighty. We sell these videos in a DVD, actually. We even sell it on Amazon in US and Germany. Usually, a video consists of about four sentences, right? And there’s always about one or two people talking in the clip. So, we have more than one word we’re teaching, and the thing that we do with these lessons is that we try to group them– when someone like Wendy is just taking a class based on the clip, we have words that are related to the dialogue that they’re speaking. For example, if you’re learning that you’re hungry, we of course then learn “I’m so full,” in Chinese. And if it’s spicy, then we give a few examples of spicy food that is eaten in China. Things like that. And then that way, in one lesson, you have more than just learning five to ten words. You have a lot more. And then that’s great because, some students would like to focus on just the dialogue and learn that, but some students are really dedicated to learning Chinese and want a more advanced learning experience; they can learn all the other extra words that the teacher teaches in the virtual classroom, and then they end up learning maybe thirty words per lesson. And it’s all dependent upon how motivated the student is. You can see in the pricing page that we have prices for value, motivated, and determined. You know, we even label the packages on how motivated people are.

CJ: How many models do you have now? Are they all Mandarin teachers?

Kaoru: We have thirty-five teachers. They’re all on the website. I think you’ll notice that some of them actually won’t teach our virtual classroom, the one that you did with Wendy. So, that’s what we call the virtual classroom. Some of them are actually just models. But we try — it’s really difficult to find beautiful people that can also teach and are a good teacher.

Strength of Sexy Mandarin

CJ: And why do you think your service is more special than other language schools?

Kaoru: Actually, I’m really naughty. I mean cheeky, but I sometimes pretend to be a student and try out other services. So, I’ve tried out most of the virtual classroom services offered on the Internet. I have to say that a lot of these virtual classroom schools have no experience with lighting and production. We have a lot of this kind of experience. For example, like your camera right now. I can’t see your face completely because you’re backlit, right? So we try to make it as professional as possible. We have a professional lighting crew light up the set so that, for example, when you have lessons with Wendy, she’s lit up nicely. She looks really professional and beautiful in front of the camera.

CJ: Besides an online video and lesson service, what else do you offer?

Kaoru: Well, we also have students wanting to take one-on-one lessons, not through the Internet, but in person. So, we do offer that kind of service to some students that really want to have that. And we also do a lot of merchandise. We’re now developing a notebook. It’s two hundred pages long, I think. Each page on the notebook has a different Chinese character, and then it has all the information on how the Chinese word derives from images, so we have all these really cool ways of learning characters. Especially Western people, Chinese characters are really complicated for them. It’s a totally different concept from alphabets, right? So, then when they see these pictures, they will be able to learn faster.

Query about Sexy Mandarin

CJ: I thought you just focused on male students.

Kaoru: Yeah, I mean 99% of the people are male students, but my mom is also one of the students. She’s learning Chinese now. You know, it’s very strange because when I first went to China, she only knew China from the news and Japan. So, she was very negative about it. But when I invited her to Shanghai while I was there, she really had a good time there. She loved Chinese people more than Japanese people. They’re more passionate. They’re more friendly. And now she’s so interested in learning Chinese, she’s totally learning Chinese from Sexy Mandarin.

CJ: Then what are the biggest challenges you face?

Kaoru: I think the biggest challenges, are that some people might not take the classes seriously. Because it’s Sexy Mandarin, people who are looking to learn Mandarin seriously might not take us seriously. And I think that’s the biggest challenge for us, because when people actually take the virtual classroom, they realize that it’s a serious learning site. But, on the website and all the clips, it doesn’t look that serious. To be able to kind of show to the students that we’re actually a serious learning site is probably the most difficult part of this project. You know, I’m sure if we had a website with a serious looking teacher and clips with really serious kinds of settings, then it would be a different story.

CJ: And some people commented that your site is obviously trying to capitalize on something, Western’s stereotype of Chinese women. You are just selling sex and the sexualized services under the packaging of language tuition. How do you want to respond?

Kaoru: Well, some people are saying, “Oh, you’re making these Chinese girls look so submissive and this is a really bad image for China and the girls there.” I don’t think that’s the case, because if they really were submissive, then they wouldn’t be doing this, right? I think it’s more like these girls are manipulating the Western man, so they’re the submissive ones, if that makes sense.

What`s New

CJ: Then your service was reported on by many videos, by a lot of media in 2012. Now, in this year, what’s new about your site? Any difference?

Kaoru: Well, back then it was more about our clips. We weren’t really teaching online. This is a new project started this year. We’ve only started this as a fun project. We thought: “Oh, let’s have sexy girls dressed in lingerie teaching Chinese,” and we just made it. I mean, initially, it was just me and then two Chinese girls, and the video camera. I mean, the shooter. I made all the scripts and then just bought some lingerie, and then dressed up the girls. And I shot six episodes in two days, and then edited it and just put it on YouTube, and then somehow all the media decided to feature it because it was a really interesting concept.

CJ: Then could you please tell us your future plans for Sexy Mandarin?
Kaoru: Well, the future plan is to really develop. This virtual classroom thing is a very new concept, and of course it’s actually new for everyone in the world. Because it’s a new technology, it’s really difficult to have. People don’t really believe they can learn online, with a teacher. They still think they should go to a school, and meet the teacher there, and sit in front of the table and learn, and things like that. So, our new goal is to really make this learning online like an intuitive way of learning. It’s something that you can do when you have time. You don’t have to commute to schools. You don’t even have to meet the teacher in person. And when you have free time to learn, it’s really time saving, as well. So, yeah, we’re trying to push this new concept to people who are used to the conventional way of learning a language.

CJ: Okay, the last question. What do you want to say to our readers and all the Mandarin learners?

Kaoru: I would love to tell them that Sexy Mandarin is actually a serious learning site and we will give free trials to anyone who’s interested.

The post The Sexy Way to Learn Mandarin – Interview with Sexy Mandarin appeared first on .

Summary: YoYo Chinese is an online Mandarin learning platform. They market themselves as a convenient and comprehensive way learning and understanding Mandarin. They offer 6 units, all being broken down into smaller units with video lessons, practices, downloadable audio and text files, flashcards, and quizzes. YoYo Chinese is thorough language learning site whose only downfall is the lack of in depth grammar instruction.

Pros:

• Comprehensive: the lessons are well thought out and include a generally well rounded education from beginner to intermediate mandarin.
• Resources: includes plentiful resources to aid in studying.
• Value: the price point is a bit steep, but includes a lot of benefits.

Cons:

• Repetitive: lessons, quizzes, and practices can get a bit repetitive.
• Grammar: lacks in depth grammar knowledge in lessons

In Depth Review

Throughout my language learning process, I’ve tried all different kinds of platforms for learning; self-study through books, websites, apps, and of course, classes offered through my university. That being said, aside from university courses, YoYo Chinese may be one of the best Mandarin learning resources out there. It seems that YoYo Chinese has done a good job of adapting the website for the average, busy, adult just trying to pick up a second language. Their ‘study on your time’ approach really adapts to adult life, making studying and learning that much easier.

Lessons and Courses:

YoYo Chinese offers 6 different courses:

• Beginner Converstaional,
• Chinese Character,
• Intermediate Conversational,
• Chinese Character II,
• Upper Intermediate Conversational,
• Chinese Character Reader.

As you can see, the course curriculum is designed with two main curriculums; conversational skills and character learning. The two systems are separate, but compliment each other nicely. According to the official recommendation, the learners should develop a foundation in spoken Chinese before starting to learn Chinese characters. Thus, Level 1 of the Beginner Conversational Course should be the first lesson. It‘s better to learn the Characters Course alongside the corresponding Conversational Course.

The most unique aspect of the Conversational Course is the “on the street” clips in each level. The real, natural conversations are mixed into the lesson flow. The style ranges from basic Q&A to interviews, and even to an unscripted conversation with Chinese people. The difficulty is increased gradually with each lesson, which brings you into a real practical Chinese language environment. The supplement materials are not only for fun, but also for getting out of the textbook.

Each Course is broken down into 6 different levels, which is then further broken down into roughly 13 different units.

Every unit is broken down further into small video sections, roughly 3-6 per unit. For the beginning lessons, the videos are typically short, 2-4 minuets roughly. For the longer units the videos can get up to 10 minuets long.

The videos introduce and explain the concepts in a way that native English speakers understand. After the video, there will be a button that says ‘Start Quiz’ or ‘Begin Practice’. Most units will have you practice the concepts that were introduced and some will then quiz you on those same concepts. Also included with each unit is lecture notes, or a downloadable PDF file that goes over the vocabulary and sentences that were introduced.

The lessons themselves are pretty informational and digestible. The speaker, Yang Yang, does a good job of explaining the concepts, especially in the beginning lessons of tones and pinyin. In the earlier lessons, the videos are typically her explaining the concepts and then reviewing the previous lesson a bit. In the later lessons, she begins the video with a clip of native Mandarin speakers, and the rest of the video is a break-down and explanation of that clip. The lessons focus on every day, informal Mandarin, which in my opinion, is great. With university courses, and other platforms, there’s a focus on academic and formal Mandarin, but when put in a real life situation, only about 2/3 of what you learn is applicable. The only downside I see to the lessons is there’s no formal walkthrough on grammar included in the lessons. This is found on a separate page. In my opinion, grammar should be taught within the lessons so you see when/how it is applicable.

Resources and Blog:

YoYo Chinese also has a really nice feature in terms of their resources. The resources page has three different options: The PinYin Chart, the Reference Videos, and The Download Center. The PinYin Chart is a comprehensive chart of all the different sounds found in Mandarin. It’s broken down by letter and ending. Each sound can also be clicked on. When clicking on it, you can listen to the sound spoken with all four of the different tones. It is a great resource to use for listening and practicing with speaking.

The second part of the resource center is the Reference Videos. This page offers 3 videos that explain Mandarin grammar. There are 12 different lessons, each containing a few videos. They range from Chinese Word Order to The ba (3) 把 Structure. It creates a good foundation to continue learning, but only touches on grammar. This section also offers tips and handouts to practice more specific things.

Lastly, the resource page offers the Download Center, which is just a comprehensive list of all the lecture notes. It includes the downloadable PDF files, audio lessons, flashcards and tips.

YoYo Chinese also offers a blog where they frequently upload articles about Chinese culture.

Store and Price Point:

There are two payment options for gaining access to Yoyo Chinese:

Subscription: 19.99USD/month or 89.94USD/6 months.

One-time Payment: 299USD for lifetime access.

Save 10% on a sale to Yoyo Chinese with the promo code “DIGMANDARIN10”.

Even though the price point seems steep, it is well worth it. For the price, the lessons, flashcards, all the resources, and the blog are all included. With such a comprehensive lesson plan for less than $150, it is a good deal and worth the money.

Conclusion:

In conclusion, YoYo Chinese is a great platform. With a comprehensive lesson break down, learners get a well-rounded instruction into their Chinese learning. For the price, a ton of information is included. With the option of video, audio, and PDF versions of lessons, there is an option for nearly every learner. If you have the money, I would recommend YoYo Chinese to begin, or continue, your Chinese learning journey.

A few years ago, DigMandarin also conducted an interview with Yangyang Cheng, the founder of Yoyo Chinese

Yangyang Cheng, celebrity Chinese teacher and former TV host, is the founder and host of Yoyo Chinese. Born and raised in Beijing and a resident of the U.S. for many years, Yangyang has one foot in both the East and the West and has become an educator with a rare multi-cultural perspective.

She got her start teaching Chinese on Youtube, creating more than 300 language learning videos with over 22 million views.

Join me in my chat with Yangyang below as she talks about her biggest challenges, newest projects and the most important thing to avoid when learning Chinese.

Yangyang`s Experience

DigMandarin: How did you start to teach Chinese?

Yangyang: I actually started my career as a financial auditor and then worked in Hollywood for a little while. But my greatest passion has always been language teaching so I started to teach English to Chinese speakers online. The videos I made became really popular because I used shows like “Friends” and “Sex and the City” to teach English the way real people talk. I then expanded my teaching to include tutoring English speakers in Chinese.

I found that many English speakers had trouble finding Chinese teachers they could relate to who could explain the material in a clear and concise way. I saw that their textbooks and learning materials were full of complicated jargon and confusing explanations, no wonder they were experiencing frustration!

I realized that while there are already lots of great English speakers to teach Chinese, there are not nearly enough great Chinese teachers in the west. So I set out to apply my language teaching passion to teaching Chinese to English speakers in a way that is fun and easy to understand.

I spent hours upon hours reading through every textbook and grammar guide for Chinese language, compiling every explanation for every concept in Chinese. My goal was to create a curriculum using the best explanations, tailored to fit the specific needs of native English speakers. In addition, I began teaching at two universities and expanding my tutoring so I could test out my new teaching system on individual students and in a classroom setting. After years of research, I combined my tried and true teaching methods with my experience as a TV host and created Yoyo Chinese – an online education company that uses short and fun videos to teach Chinese to English speakers.

DigMandarin: You had a lot of very famous students. Who is the most impressive?

Yangyang: Eliza Coupe really impressed me during the filming of her movie “Shanghai Calling.” When we began, she couldn’t speak a word of Chinese and I had two weeks to get her sounding like she had lived in Beijing for 6 or 7 years. She accepted the challenge and worked very hard to fill this tall order. I was able to give her lots of shortcuts to teach her how to speak Chinese, but mastering the tones and pronunciation was definitely the hardest part. In the end, I taught her to sing out the tones like a song. We played a game where we’d sing out just the tones and then add the sounds afterwards. This method proved effective and in the end I was blown away by Eliza Coupe’s hard work and success in learning Chinese.

About Yoyo Chinese

DigMandarin: Now which area are you focusing on?

Yangyang: I am really excited about the up and coming popularity of Google Hangouts on Air. We have conducted a few of these live Chinese lessons and our very first one had nearly 1,000 live viewers from around the world. Basically, I collect questions from people before the Hangout begins and then I teach a lesson and answer their questions live.

Recently, Google has released some new features that will allow us to conduct this entire Question & Answer process live on air, which we plan to do very soon. The goal with the Hangouts in addition to real, human interaction is to show people that they really can benefit from these lessons right away. I try to demonstrate sounds and use lots of pictures in my explanations to create the “aha” moment that every student finds so encouraging.

At first, I was a little nervous about venturing into this unknown territory of Google Hangouts. In my recorded video lessons, I get to do retakes and edit out all my mistakes. When I am teaching live, everyone will see my mistakes and I only get one chance to explain things clearly. But my students have been really encouraging and supportive of this new way of teaching and gradually I have gotten used to it and even enjoy these live events now.

It’s been a really rewarding experience to broadcast my Chinese lessons live and to see everyone’s reactions as it is happening – I am truly excited about the future of these Live Hangouts for Yoyo Chinese.

DigMandarin: What is the biggest challenge for you among so many types of video?

Yangyang: The two hardest series to create have been Chinese on the Street and Chinese Grammar. Chinese Grammar was created completely from scratch. I spent years studying every Chinese grammar book to find the best explanations and examples and from that I created a series of 70 lessons. This series has probably been the most challenging mentally and has taken the longest amount of time to complete.

When teaching in video format, there are lots of factors to consider besides just explaining everything well. I had to research and decide how to present the explanations on video, how to record it, how to light it. Everything needed to be put together to form one cohesive video series and it was a really time consuming, challenging process.

DigMandarin： Is Chinese on the street one of your new projects?

Yangyang： Yes, Chinese on the Street is one of our newest projects. We launched the series a few months ago and have had really great feedback from our students. The series helps them improve their listening comprehension and get used to hearing Chinese spoken the way real people talk.

Unlike in the real world, if our students don’t understand something, they can replay the video and take a look at the accompanying lecture notes until everything makes sense and they become accustomed to hearing everyday, spoken Chinese. This way of studying really helps prepare our students to enter the real world of spoken Chinese where there are no lecture notes or replays!

Our team in Shenyang, China conducts interviews with people on the street about various topics covered in our other courses. They ask people questions like “What’s your name?”, “Can you speak Chinese?” and “What do you like to eat?” They ask the same question to each person but often hear a different way of answering each time. Just like in English, some people will say “Yeah” and others will say “Yes”. This way, our students can get a sense for what a real conversation sounds like in Chinese without ever setting foot in China.

We started this series because so many English speakers say the biggest difficulty in their Chinese studies is the ability to understand native speakers. Even if they can speak and ask questions confidently, their confidence is all but lost when they can’t understand the answers to their questions.

One of the reasons listening comprehension is so difficult is because people speak much faster in real- life conversations than a teacher, like myself, does when teaching. They also tend to use regional accents or omit words. Small variations in speech can really trip up a non-native speaker.

With Chinese on the Street, our students can practice and get used to all these variations in a low stakes setting so that they will be fully prepared succeed in the real world.

DigMandarin: Well, what is your future plan for Chinese?

Yangyang: Learning Chinese online is still a relatively new concept and an emerging field. We aim to stay on at the forefront of this field and keep innovating new and improved ways for people to learn Chinese. We still have lots to explore and learn and we continue to try new and different ways to reach our students.

Competitive Advantage of Yoyo Chinese

DigMandarin: What advantages do you think you and your team have?

Yangyang: My years living in the U.S. have been instrumental in improving my English speaking ability and knowledge of Western culture. I think a teacher is one of the most critical factors for a student studying any subject. My ability to relate to native English speakers and see things from their perspective helps to bridge the gap between Chinese and English. This relationship really helps my students see that Chinese is actually a conquerable language after all.

DigMandarin: Why do you think your Chinese videos are better than other Chinese videos?

Yangyang: I think the main challenge all video content creators face is how to maintain a human element when there is a screen between my students and myself. I have tackled this issue by presenting my lessons as a real, authentic person. I keep a relaxed tone and try not to sound really polished and rehearsed. I really try to relate to my students by using demonstrations and explanations that are easy for them to understand and maybe even make them laugh. We pay close attention to details and try to make our explanations interesting and easy to remember.

DigMandarin: You said that you had an English speaker`s perspective; what do you think it is?

Yangyang: Well, understanding an English speakers’ perspective means knowing in advance what kind of things they will find confusing about Chinese.

For example, the word bǎ (把)doesn’t really exist in English the way it does in Chinese. So naturally, English speakers are confused by how to use this word. I am able to take what they already know about how English is spoken and use that to help them understand the use of the word bǎ. If something is being moved from point A to point B, then that should raise a red flag in your head to use bǎ. I show my students lots of examples and clearly tell them when they must use it and when they can’t use it.

Most importantly, I can anticipate the kinds of mistakes English speakers will make when trying to translate from English to Chinese. For example they might say wǒ shì hěn hǎo (I am very good), which is the literal translation from English to Chinese. But actually, the word “to be”, shì in this case is not necessary because in Chinese adjectives function as verbs, “good” is already “to be good”.

I know they will make this sort of mistake before they even make it and I can correct the mistake before it happens. This way, they learn the correct usage the first time around. I have spent so much time teaching English speakers, I know where they will have problems before they even know, and this kind of thing really makes my students feel that I understand their perspective.

How to Best Use Yoyo Chinese Videos

DigMandarin: I saw your videos. Why are so many videos limited to 5 minutes?

Yangyang: Well, in my experience the audience for online video has a much shorter attention span. We want to be sure to keep our students focused and engaged for the whole lesson so we keep them short and sweet.

Our scripts usually start out much longer than this and we work very hard to simplify concepts. If a student can understand a concept with two sentences, we don’t want to waste their time saying 4 sentences!

Our students give us great feedback on this format. They like that they can crunch a lesson or two and be productive even if they only have a short amount of time here and there throughout the day. We have found that this style is perfect for modern, busy people who don’t have time to sit down and watch a whole 60 minute long lesson in one go.

DigMandarin: What do you think is the best way to use your video to learn Chinese?

Yangyang: I think the best answer to this question comes from my students themselves. I talked at length with many of them to find out what situations help them learn and what circumstances make them feel frustrated and ready to give up.

Learning a language is a very human experience and human nature must be considered when putting together a study plan. The learning process is much more like a marathon than a sprint. A person accumulates vocabulary and grammar etc. over a long period of time and has to take breaks to let it all sink in.

Especially since Chinese is such a popular language to learn right now, lots of people jump right in with ambition to study two hours a day and become fluent in just a few months. But after keeping up this high intensity for some time, many people just give up. A lot of people say that they give up because it is exhausting to always be concerned about whether they are doing the right thing, learning the right way or following the correct path to fluency. This is especially common amongst people who try to cobble together their own collection of resources online. Learning a language is hard enough, so why take on the burden of learning how to learn a language as well?

This issue of how to learn a language is why I think students need a language-learning path to follow. With an established plan, they can track their progress and know what direction to follow. They know in advance what they can achieve in a certain amount of time.

I provide my students with a daily study guide that tells them exactly which videos to watch along with which supplemental materials such as lecture notes or guided audio review. This plan takes only half an hour a day, 5 days a week. If my students follow this study guide faithfully, they can achieve conversational fluency in only 6 months. All along the way, there is review and through use of Chinese on the Street the students can test their knowledge and make sure they are learning the material as thoroughly as they should. Removing the issue of how to learn allows students to focus solely on learning.

Learning Tips about Chinese

DigMandarin: Can you recommend some good self-study materials for Chinese learners?

Yangyang: For starters, textbooks are not ideal for learning Chinese. If a student is learning Chinese at school, the textbook is often based around exams and other arbitrary methods of tracking progress. While a textbook can be a helpful visual aid, it lacks the ability to teach listening. I actually think that learning to speak Chinese and learning to read/write Chinese are two separate endeavors. The character writing process can be so overwhelming and ultimately ware down a person’s interest in Chinese. In the beginning, I recommend students focus only on spoken Chinese.

For those who are interested in learning Chinese characters, I recommend two books, “New Approaches to Learning Chinese“ and “Rapid Literacy In Chinese”. Though these days, it really makes the most sense to focus on reading and typing rather than reading and hand writing.

DigMandarin: Then what do you think a Chinese learner should avoid most?

Yangyang: I think a Chinese learner should avoid trying to follow too many different programs at once. There are so many resources out there – blogs, flashcards, videos, language learning programs – that it can be tempting to try to absorb everything all at once. Eventually, this all-or-nothing process catches up with people and it shakes their enthusiasm and resolve to learn the language. It is much better to find one program or one tutor and stick to that, especially in the beginning.

Additionally, I can’t say it enough: practice, practice, practice. Even if you only know two words, get out there and say them to everyone who will listen. There is no better language-learning tool than using that language to truly communicate with others.

If you want to know more about Yangyang and her Yoyo Chinese, Please feel free to leave your comments here. Let`s looking forward to more great videos and programs.

The post Yoyo Chinese Review: Worth the Sticker Price? appeared first on .

1. Profile of Chairat Kittikhunphadung

CJ: Firstly, please introduce yourself to our readers.

Chen You: Hi, my Chinese name is Chen You. I’m 27 years old, and currently live in Bangkok. I was a undergraduate Law School student in Thailand, but at sophomore year I figured that I’m not fond of any law courses, and finally decided to transfer to Marketing and Chinese major; later I got my Master Degree on Business Management, majoring in Marketing. When I was a child, I learned some Chinese words with a language teacher who comes from Taiwan, not much improvement though, probably because I’m a lazy-bone, and traditional Chinese is just too hard for me to learn. The only reason I continue work on learning Chinese is because when I went to Southwest University at the first year of my college, they arranged a friend who from foreign language department to teach me speak Chinese, and I really do not want to let such a good friend down. Later I passed HSK level 6. Even though I do not find the skill very much useful, keep practicing is not a bad idea after all. Now my job is selling Baumkuchen, nothing to do with Chinese, but really helpful when anything related to Facebook.

2. All about Chinese learning contents

CJ: Your Facebook is so impressed. What is the biggest challenge when you make those posts?

Chen You: It’s very difficult to find different mottos every day. Sometimes you have to translate the mottos into Chinese or English. My Facebook statuses are all about love and life. I always hope I can find some words that touch people.

CJ: Why you decide to make a Chinese page? Did you think you would have so many fans?

Chen You: I had an opportunity to work as a translator once because my teacher let me translate some mottos into Chinese. I knew there are many English Motto Blogs that Chinese people can learn English from, and I believe is a better idea to learn Chinese as well. I mainly target on something fun, easy and comfort. What is the most important, I have to keep practicing Chinese, or I will forget. I can also meet new friends!

Because all the mottos are written with simple words, and everyone wants to read something that really make them feel warm and comfort, I believe I can make it up to 40 thousand fans till October.

CJ: Your Facebook talking is awesome. What do you think they like your page most?

Chen You: Mottos and Vocabulary Collection – Vocabulary Collection is actually the most popular content. Therefore, I’m sure most of my fans are truly willing to learn the language.

CJ: Your posts have no pinyin. Why?

Chen You: If you just can recognize pinyin and pronounce it, it does not really help, and it does not mean you’ve learned Chinese. You have to study the vocabulary collection, and not just focus on the translation, because all the mottos and translations just want to make you feel interesting.

CJ: Do your fans all want to learn Chinese? Where are they located?

Chen You: No. Among my friends, around 10% of them want to learn English, and the rest would love to learn Chinese. Most of them are from Thailand, Italy, China, United States, and most of them are female.

CJ: How did you edit those contents?

Chen You: Regarding to the sources of my content, some of them are original; the others are online searching results. I’m a DIY fan. I love taking photos with the DIY stuff and do some writing.

CJ: Does this Facebook page help you to learn Chinese?

Chen You: Of course, in this way, I can practice my Chinese skills, especially writing. I’ve stop learning Chinese for almost three years; it’s the only way that I can do some reviewing.

3. Sharing Chinese learning experience

CJ: Which part is the most difficult for you when learning Chinese?

Chen You: Keep working and never stop. Chinese is quiet complicated; you may find different words that deliver the same meaning, but you may also find the same word that delivers different meaning or feeling within different contexts. I really need to improve my speaking and writing skills. Reviewing old notebooks is a great idea.

CJ: You are also a Chinese teacher. So can you give our DigMandarin readers some suggestions about Chinese learning?

Chen You: Now I work part-time as Chinese teacher on weekends, but I do not follow the books or the guides. I prefer to let my students read something interesting and useful, such as shopping experiences, any topics that related to everyday life and so forth. By the way, my textbook is ‘Chinese Course’ issued by Beijing Foreign Studies University.

At the very beginning, you may find Chinese is really easy to understand because it’s just few words you’ve learned. Later, when you meet mid-level, both grammar and vocabulary will become really hard. Don’t be afraid; keep working on vocabulary, forming sentences, writing essays, you will finally get though.

CJ: What is your future plan about Chinese?

Chen You: I want to go back to Beijing and learn more about Chinese language. As for work, I’d love to find a job that related to marketing and Chinese, so I can keep practicing my Chinese skills. It took me 4-5 years on learning Chinese, but I’ve achieved a great success, even much better than my 20 years English skills; I feel so proud.

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